Officials with the Ionia Department of Public Safety are working to determine the cause of a fire that broke out in a vacant brick home on Rich Street Monday.

Neighbors reported seeing smoke in the area of 442 Rich St. around 4:10 p.m., said IDPS Deputy Director John Odette. When firefighters arrived, they found smoke coming from the eaves at the rear of the house. The fire was contained to the upper rear portion of the building and was under control in fewer than 40 minutes, he said.

No one was inside at the time and there were no injuries.

Odette said the house had been empty for some time, and there had been some vandalism in "the recent past." Windows and doors had been boarded up.

Guy Buckingham, who lives nearby, said the house used to belong to his grandmother before she sold it 10 years ago. He and family members used to come to visit her from out of state.

"My grandfather used to design clubs in Chicago," Buckingham said. "The interior of this house was really different."

He said he was "more mad than sad" about the fire, because it should have been sold and lived in, rather than left abandoned.

Assisting the IDPS were the Lyons-Muir and Berlin Orange fire departments, Life EMS, the Ionia County Sheriff's Office, Michigan State Police and Ionia County Central Dispatch.